Penna Dexter

Most studies show married women are happier. But a recent Pew survey shows young men are more interested in marriage than young women.

Politics is a factor. An NBC News survey published in September found that “Gen Z men who voted for Trump rate having children as the most important thing in their definition of success,” while “Gen Z women who voted for Harris ranked having children as the second least important thing in their personal definition of success.”

Emily Jashinsky worked for author Christina Hoff Summers on the 2013 rerelease of her book, The War Against Boys. Ms. Jashinsky, currently a Washington correspondent for the conservative British news outlet, Unherd, says the latest research on young adults shows that Ms. Summers’ 2000 book was “prescient.” Men are falling behind women on many fronts, including college enrollment and degrees earned, employment prospects, and, now the ability to find a spouse. Of the gap between men and women’s desire for marriage and family, she writes, “as some men struggle for economic opportunity, women are adjusting their expectations and desires.” Seeing “a pool of less marriageable men, young women are turning their backs on the institution.”

Since more women are achieving financial independence, many of them don’t feel they need men in the same way women once did. Richard Reeves, founder of the American Institute of Boys and Men, says, “we understate the extent to which men need that purpose, that need to be needed.”

Richard Reeves was asked by Washington Post podcaster Shadi Hamid about the downside of all the choices provided by online dating. With dating apps, there’s “this grass-is-greener dynamic.”  Am I choosing “exactly the right person?”

When you find someone, he says, remember: it’s really about “how are you going to be in the relationship.” For men, “It’s less about picking the perfect wife, and more about being a good husband.”

Better yet. Be a man of faith. Find a woman of faith.